AFTER long decline, prairie towns are enjoying a revival and some are attracting international attention for delivering a sustainable lifestyle.
Some of the growth can be attributed to the commodity boom of recent years, but more importantly communities are developing new strategies to attract residents and businesses.
The challenge will be to continue evolving the strategies to keep pace with ever evolving economic forces and to maintain citizen activism and leadership.
The latest community to garner international laurels is Ogema, a town of about 325 in south-central Saskatchewan.
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As the 20th century ended, Ogema, like most small rural communities, was in decline, losing its rail line, elevator, many services and young people.
But this month it won a silver award in the 20,000-and-under population category at the 2008 International Awards for Liveable Communities, a United Nations recognized program that judges communities’ landscape enhancement, heritage management, environmentally sensitive practices, community sustainability, healthy lifestyles and planning for the future.
Ogema and district residents turned their community around by identifying what they wanted, creating a strategic plan and working with persistence to carry it out.
They bought the rail branchline and created a short-line railway to run it. They bought the grain elevator, built a motel, restored a train station-museum and attracted a hog operation and a business that rebuilds grain hopper cars.
Every two years they host a trade show, and their pioneer village museum is one of the largest of its kind in Western Canada.
Their efforts to beautify their town won recognition from the Communities in Bloom program. They designated several historic buildings. About 90 jobs have been created and a dozen immigrants from the Philippines have moved in to work at the local hog barn. More are coming.
Ogema follows in the footsteps of St. Walburg, Sask., which placed highly in the International Awards for Liveable Communities in 2007 and Okotoks, Alta., in 2005.
Indeed, stories about prairie community revivals are becoming common thanks to resource development, a buoyant grain economy and people escaping the high housing costs and long commutes of big cities.
It is good news for farmers who live on the land because it will help preserve local retail, government, health, recreational and cultural services that have been rapidly centralizing in a few major centres.
However, commodity prices boom and bust and can’t be relied upon for sustainable rural revival. The long-term trends of farm consolidation and urbanization have not disappeared, meaning the current will continue to be against small towns.
But decline is not inevitable.
In fact, Ogema’s success is not linked to oil drilling, mine development or proximity to a big city.
Rather it is an example of the power of developing a formal strategy, persistence and critically, a strong local force of community leaders and volunteers.
It is important to celebrate the success and use it to educate and motivate the next generation to take up the cause.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
